


Cassata Cake for the Dead

by kat8cha



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Birthday, Coulson Lives, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-08
Updated: 2012-07-08
Packaged: 2017-11-09 11:11:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/454789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kat8cha/pseuds/kat8cha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint used to throw Coulson a party but now that Coulson's dead... (July 8th is Phil Coulson's official Birthday!)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cassata Cake for the Dead

It takes a few months for Coulson’s death to really sink in. SHIELD had needed some heavy reorganization post the battle for Midtown anyway so finding a way to disseminate the jobs and people Coulson was responsible for among other agents is just one of many things that gets added into the restructuring. Clint and Natasha never truly get assigned a new handler, it’s been years since they needed more than a voice in their headsets, and they learn to rely on Maria as Control instead of Phil. It isn’t hard, Maria Hill is one of the most competent and ruthless agents in all of SHIELD, she gets along well with Natasha.

Clint had long ago acknowledged his competence kink, especially when it came to women in positions of authority. 

Still, now and then Clint rounds a corner and finds himself bracing for a run-in with Coulson, or he and Natasha sit down to a meal and one of them comments that ‘Phil would love this’. Stark announces Avengers tower and gives them an open ended invitation to move in (two months after the attack and Stark Industries is flying higher than it ever did before) and Clint can’t help but remember Coulson after Stark revealed he was Iron Man. Coulson had always known Stark would never stick to procedure, wouldn’t stick to the cars, Fury might have had an inkling but Coulson had _known_.

But the man always did believe in heroes.

It’s July, three months after the kit and caboodle, and Clint is standing outside of a small cake shop, Coulson’s favorite, and suffering from the urge to shoot something.

Hit someone.

The cakes had started out as a joke the second year of Clint’s recruitment, back when Clint didn’t have the security clearance to know Coulson’s exact birthday. He had picked a date by throwing a dart at the calendar he had pinned up to the wall, then organized a surprise party with a slew of other junior agents or incredibly gullible senior ones, and presented both cake and some form of gag present to Coulson in the lunch room. 

After the first three years most of the other agents had either been informed or learned that Clint didn’t actually know Coulson’s birthday and it was all a big joke but really, who turned down free cake or a chance to blame someone else for drinking while on duty?

Six years into his work at SHIELD Clint was steadily eking towards clearance high enough to access at least parts of Coulson’s file. That was the year his little dart landed on July 8th, which, oddly enough, turned out to be Coulson’s birthday.

Not that Coulson admitted it to him the only reason Clint figured it out was Nick Fury (who at that point Clint had only had direct dealings with the first day of his recruitment) showed up and handed Coulson a card.

“You planning on going in?” 

Clint rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe. Natasha and I could split one of those small ones, you know, the kind covered in chocolate.”

“I was never a fan of those.” 

“Yeah, well.” Clint refused to turn around, instead he focused on the reflection of a man who wasn’t really there in the cake shop’s window. “You’re dead, you cassata cake loving asshole.”

A hand, a fucking hand, a fucking _hand_ with _weight_ behind it was placed on his shoulder. “Well, rumors of my death-”

Clint didn’t let him finish, instead he spun around and punch Coulson in the jaw. 

“You asshole! See if I buy you a cake now!”


End file.
